145. Pen Name
PDF / PUZ Hello hello! Cubbies got four players before the trade deadline - but not a starting pitcher! The market was tough, and it was probably better holding onto some of our stellar prospects. We'll see if our pitching can take us far enough into the postseason. Have to get through August and September first! --- 1. Puzzle #144 answer: DIME A DOZEN Correct entries: 55 Shortest explanation: Kind of a SAD one. The five extremely contrived clues to the 12-letter spanners (which took a while to write!) have exactly 10 of the 12 unique letters from the spanner within them. Thus, each spanner has two "leftover" letters; when spelled out in grid order, you get DIME A DOZEN , a nice connection to both the numbers 10 and 12, and the answer to the meta. --- 2. Welcome to the final month of the Summer of Solves! I planned to start with a Level 1, but this one got a bit away from me, perhaps, so Level 2 it is! Good luck, and may all your solves be beautiful! Mikey ...